Weekend Cooking Inspiration

We made several new dishes Sunday. Chris had been wanting to try the vegan corned beef recipe he found a long time ago, so it finally happened. It turned out decently, although I think we're used to heavier spicing, so probably would double or use 1.5 times if we make it again. Not bad for a first attempt at "fake meat". We also hadn't had indian in many weeks, so I was thrilled that Chris was inspired to make Seitan Vindaloo. We used very little seitan (the vegan corned beef worked well) and lots of potato, and tweaked the amount of sugar and replaced the white wine vinegar with apple cider vinegar. Serendipitously, the sauce was really reminiscent of the vindaloo from our favorite indian restaurant in college. It never ceases to amaze me how often the use of animal products is often not the determining factor in recreating (or creating!) a dish. Needless to say, we had no leftovers.

He also made cajun chickpea cakes and I made asparagus sauteed in olive oil with sliced red onion and borsari seasoned salt for dinner. Delicious. Speaking of asparagus, we got our measly 'tasting' of 5 spears in our garden share this week. I was really excited to have asparagus, but incredibly disappointed with the amount. And that's all we'll get in the CSA this year. So I bought some at the store, too and cooked it all together. I do think the few pieces from the farm were the bites that stood out and tasted amazing though. We've always wanted to grow asparagus but it doesn't bear until the 2nd year. Hopefully next year we'll plant some.

We also had rhubarb from the farm for the 2nd week in a row so I decided I needed to find a recipe to try it out. The only thing I'd ever heard of making with rhubarb is strawberry rhubarb pie. I didn't have strawberries, nor was I interested in a pie or anything else with cups of sugar. Thank you internet for recipe ideas. So I made an apple rhubarb compote which had some sugar, but seemed better than a lot of what I found. I pureed it and it reminded me of a strawberry applesauce. Again, no leftovers, ha. So I'll either make that again with the 2nd bundle of rhubarb- or I also found recipes for muffins, a lentil-rhubarb soup, and rhubarb salsa.

Next I need to use the bunches of bok choy we've gotten two weeks in a row. The radishes, baby beet greens, chives, and lettuce have been nice for salads. Finally had a baked potato with the fresh chives last week, too. What will this week bring?

Vegetable Biriyani

I've been making this for years now, just have made some adjustments over time. Brown basmati rice goes better with all of the earthy spices like clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, coriander, turmeric, and kashmiri chili powder. The rice is fried in a little coconut oil (as opposed to butter), spices added, and then placed in a casserole in the oven with a some chopped raw cashews to cook. Mixed vegetables, onion, green pepper, and a dozen thai chilies are sauteed and then stirred into the rice, and it's topped with yogurt on each plate. Yum. We've tried both "So Delicious" coconut milk yogurt and a brand of soy yogurt that I can't remember right now. They both were a little sweet in my opinion, but fit the bill. The picture with the yogurt didn't turn out as pretty, so this is what it looked like in the dish.